Elevator etiquette

You get in a downtown elevator, and just as the doors are beginning to close, a guy steps in wearing a hat and smoking a cigarette.

Houston Post headline, Feb. 23, 1913.

Wait. Well, that may not be a problem anymore, but in 1913 Houston the issue had reached the point where the Houston Post asked women for their opinion on the social annoyance. The woman with the best response won a pair of tickets to “the Majestic or the Old Majestic” theater.

Here’s one response:

“When a man takes off his hat in an elevator you do not feel that he is showing so much respect to you as to his mother, who taught him courtesy. When a man steps in an elevator with a cigarette hanging from his lips, you immediately think ‘failure’ for he will probably spend more time rolling cigarettes in the future than attending to business. A man that would hang to a stick of candy incessantly would not elicit the respect of many people, would he? Guess which I would prefer.” — A.C.

Here’s the winning response:

“Scene ‘One’ — Employer seated in office; feet propped on desk, hat on, smoking cigar. Lady stenographer opposite busily working. Scene ‘Two’ — Same employer and stenographer enter elevator. Instantly off comes that hat. Why? Because custom decries this inconsistent fallacy. Far better this man were polite in his office — at home or wherever natural opportunity arose. Not merely aping an obsolete custom. A man should not remove his hat in an elevator any more than in any other public conveyance; but he should refrain from smoking. That would be a severe manifestation of politeness, because to many women smoking is obnoxious.” — Mrs. V.